“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

For many years I didn’t have a home of my own to entertain friends. Circumstances had me living in a room in family members homes which limited my ability to invite friends to entertain. I’ll forever be grateful to my family for letting me stay with them for the various reasons I needed to stay there.

Last June I got my own place again. All I wanted was to have this beautiful place that I could entertain friends in. I’ve accomplished the first part. I have a nicely decorated home, I have beautiful dinnerware, my house is always clean and ready for someone to knock on the door. But, they don’t knock.

A couple week’s ago a friend, a single mom, asked if I could watch her kids while she went on our church’s staff retreat. I agreed, I thought it would be fun having her kids, 4th & 5th graders, over. It’s been fun having them here but yesterday I was a neurotic mess because my neat, ordered house was in utter chaos with all their stuff around. Today I spent the entire morning cleaning up after them so I can think straight.

That made me think: am I letting my friends ornament my house or am I protecting my ordered house from the ornament of of friends? Is it worth it? (And, to set the record straight, I do know that having two preteens around is very different from entertaining my adult friends.)

Then the excuses come: “I don’t have food in the cupboard to make an impressive meal”, “I don’t have enough seats to invite a group of people over”, “What if they can’t find parking”. But, do my friends care if the meal I prepare is impressive or do they want my company more than a four course, five star meal? Do my friends really care if they sit three to the couch and on the floor or are they more interested in sharing some laughs? Do my friends really care if they have to park at the other end of the complex parking lot and walk or do they just want a place they can sit and relax with someone who cares?

That’s what’s missing in my house. It isn’t the final touches on my beautifully decorated kitchen. It isn’t the final wall hangings in my cheerful bathroom. It isn’t the perfect coffee table to finish my cozy living room. No, my house is missing the ornament of friends. The comfort of an always open door. The messiness on the kitchen counter because coffee was shared with a friend for no reason other than they wanted to share my company. The messiness can be cleaned…it’s been done before.

“All people want is someone to listen.” Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, May 8, 2003

If all people want is someone to listen, then why aren’t I inviting them over to listen? I need to get past my “I will when…” and invite people over now. Friends are the ornaments that are missing from my house.